{"id":46390,"date":"2022-03-21T11:53:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T18:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=46390"},"modified":"2022-03-21T16:53:46","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T23:53:46","slug":"secretary-antony-j-blinken-at-the-united-states-holocaust-memorial-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=46390","title":{"rendered":"Secretary Antony J. Blinken at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
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03\/21\/2022 01:04 PM EDT<\/div>\n
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Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n

Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Holocaust Memorial Museum<\/p>\n

SECRETARY BLINKEN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone.\u00a0 Stu, thank you for those very kind words, but also thank you for so many decades of extraordinary service to this country and to its ideals.<\/p>\n

This is something of a sacred place for me.\u00a0 Every time I walk through these doors, it has the same impact.\u00a0 And so I\u2019m grateful to Sara and her leadership of this institution; Naomi, who walked us through the extraordinary exhibit on the story, the plight of the Rohingya that we\u2019ll be talking about today.\u00a0 I urge everyone:\u00a0 Come, see this.\u00a0 Experience this.\u00a0 It will speak incredibly powerful to you.<\/p>\n

To the entire team behind this essential institution, behind the exhibit, thank you for your enduring efforts to teach us the darkest parts of history \u2013 and the work you\u2019re doing to strive that the past does not become prologue.\u00a0 It\u2019s your efforts that make this museum a living memorial.\u00a0 That is the incredible enduring power of this institution.<\/p>\n

One of the unsettling truths of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is that there\u2019s never a time I visit here when its lessons do not feel deeply resonant.\u00a0 But I have to tell you, I can recall few times when that history felt so urgent, or the responsibility it imparts on all of us so pressing.<\/p>\n

As we meet, the Russian Government continues to wage its unprovoked, brutal war on Ukraine. Each day brings more harrowing attacks, more innocent men, women, and children killed.<\/p>\n

That includes the five people who were killed in a strike on March 1st, on a TV tower and the surrounding area on the outskirts of Kyiv, the same site where, just over 80 years ago, 33,771 Jews were killed by the Nazis in just 2 days.\u00a0 Babyn Yar.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is home to nearly 10,000 Holocaust survivors, including an 88-year-old woman, Natalia Berezhnaya of Odessa.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what she said in a recent interview, and I quote: \u201cIt\u2019s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that in 1941, I had to hide in the basement of this building, and that I\u2019m going to have to do that again now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kremlin has tried to justify this war by falsely claiming that it\u2019s intervening to stop genocide, abusing the term that we reserve for the gravest atrocities, disrespecting every victim of this heinous crime.\u00a0 Yet even as we are working to increase international pressure on the Kremlin to end this unjustified war, we know there are many other places in the world where horrific atrocities are being committed.\u00a0 Over recent weeks, as I\u2019ve spoken with diplomats from around the world about Ukraine, I\u2019ve also heard a constant refrain.\u00a0 Many of them say, \u201cYes, we stand with the people of Ukraine.\u00a0 But we must also stand with the people suffering atrocities in other places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Xinjiang, where the Chinese Government continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other minority groups.\u00a0 Like the atrocities committed in the conflict in Ethiopia by all parties to that conflict, as well as by Eritrean forces.\u00a0 And like the recent flare-up in Darfur, Sudan, which raises alarming echoes of past acts of genocide by Bashir\u2019s government forces and the Janjaweed. Standing with victims of atrocities is what brings me here today.<\/p>\n

One of my responsibilities as Secretary is determining, on behalf of the United States, whether atrocities have been committed.\u00a0 It\u2019s an immense responsibility that I take very seriously, particularly given my family\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Holocaust, the United States has concluded that genocide was committed seven times.\u00a0 Today marks the eighth, as I have determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a decision that I reached based on reviewing a factual assessment and legal analysis prepared by the State Department, which included detailed documentation by a range of independent, impartial sources, including human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as our own rigorous fact-finding.<\/p>\n

Among those sources was a joint report, published in November 2017, by the museum\u2019s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide and the human rights group, Fortify Rights; and the museum\u2019s determination, in December 2018, that there is compelling evidence that Burmese military committed crimes against humanity and genocide against Rohingya.<\/p>\n

Given the gravity of this determination, it was also important that this administration conduct its own analysis of the facts and the law. \u00a0(Inaudible) instances, the military used similar tactics targeting Rohingya: the razing of villages, killing, rape, torture, and other horrific abuses.<\/p>\n

The military\u2019s attacks in 2016 forced nearly 100,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.\u00a0 In 2017, attacks killed more than 9,000 Rohingya, and forced more than 740,000 to seek refuge in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Let me take a moment to share some findings of this report, because they are a key part of how I arrived at my own determination.<\/p>\n

The report was based on a survey of more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, all of whom were displaced by the violence in 2016 or 2017.\u00a0 Three-quarters of those interviewed said that they personally witnessed members of the military kill someone.\u00a0 More than half witnessed acts of sexual violence.\u00a0 One in five witnessed a mass-casualty event \u2013 that is, the killing or injuring of more than 100 people in a single incident.<\/p>\n

These percentages matter.\u00a0 They demonstrate that these abuses were not isolated cases.\u00a0 The attack against Rohingya was widespread and systematic, which is crucial for reaching a determination of crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

The evidence also points to a clear intent behind these mass atrocities \u2013 the intent to destroy Rohingya, in whole or in part.\u00a0 That intent has been corroborated by the accounts of soldiers who took part in the operation and later defected, such as one who said he was told by his commanding officer to, and I quote, \u201cshoot at every sight of a person,\u201d end quote \u2013 burn villages, rape and kill women, orders that he and his unit carried out.<\/p>\n

Intent is evident in the racial slurs shouted by members of the Burmese military as they attacked Rohingya, the widespread attack on mosques, the desecration of Korans.<\/p>\n

Intent is evident in the soldiers who bragged about their plans on social media, such as a lieutenant in the 33rd Light Infantry Division who, as he was deployed to Rakhine State in August 2017, wrote on his Facebook page, and I quote: \u201cIf they\u2019re Bengali, they\u2019ll be killed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 His unit is among those reported to have committed atrocities.<\/p>\n

Intent is evident in public comments by Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the Burmese military, who was overseeing the operation.\u00a0 On September 1, 2017, as soldiers were razing villages, killing, torturing, raping men, women, and children, he said this, and I quote: \u201cThe Bengali problem was a longstanding one that has become an unfinished job\u2026 The government in office is taking great care in solving it,\u201d end quote.<\/p>\n

This is the same man who, in 2021, would lead the military coup to overthrow Burma\u2019s democratically-elected government, and who currently heads its repressive regime.<\/p>\n

Intent is evident in the preparatory steps that soldiers took in the days leading up to the atrocities.\u00a0 In the village of Maung Nu, for example, soldiers started by confiscating Rohingyas\u2019 kitchen knives and machetes.\u00a0 Then they imposed a curfew.\u00a0 Then they tied pieces of red cloth outside the homes of Rohingya and at a local mosque.\u00a0 And then, only then, did the killing start.<\/p>\n

Intent is evident in the military\u2019s efforts to prevent Rohingya from escaping, like soldiers blocking exits to villages before they began their attacks, sinking boats full of men, women, and children as they tried to flee to Bangladesh.\u00a0 This demonstrates the military\u2019s intent went beyond ethnic cleansing to the actual destruction of Rohingya.<\/p>\n

Percentages, numbers, patterns, intent: these are critically important to reach the determination of genocide.\u00a0 But at the same time, we must remember that behind each of these numbers are countless individual acts of cruelty and inhumanity.<\/p>\n

Nura, a mother of four, begged soldiers not to rape her in front of her children, but she said, \u201cThey did what they wanted to my body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harsa\u2019s 12-year-old son was torn from her arms and forced to lie face down in front of her before soldiers began to stomp on his head and neck.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s painful to even read these accounts.\u00a0 And I ask you, I ask each and every one of you listening, put yourself in their place.\u00a0 Imagine this was your own child.\u00a0 Imagine.\u00a0 These stories force us to reckon with the immeasurable pain wrought by every heinous abuse.<\/p>\n

That pain ripples outward, from the individual victims and survivors to loved ones, to friends, to entire communities.\u00a0 That is something I saw with my own step-father, Samuel Pisar, who carried with him the loss of his mother, his father, his little sister, and the horrors he\u2019d experienced in the Holocaust, for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

We also must remember these individuals as more than victims, but rather as whole human beings, as mothers, as fathers, as sons, daughters.<\/p>\n

People like Jomila and her 15-year-old son, Jahingir, whose story is part of the exhibit that I saw just a little while ago.\u00a0 Jahingir was one of dozens of Rohingya executed by soldiers in August 2017.\u00a0 He was a boy with bright, inquisitive eyes, a dedicated student, who always had a book in his hand.<\/p>\n

When soldiers arrived at his village, he hid his books, fearing soldiers would steal them.\u00a0 After he was killed, his mother carried those books with her as she fled to Bangladesh.\u00a0 She still carries them today.<\/p>\n

Jomila is one Rohingya mother who lost a child.\u00a0 Out of thousands.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another fundamental lesson in the Holocaust Museum\u2019s powerful exhibit, which is found in its title: \u201cBurma\u2019s Path\u201d \u2013 Burma\u2019s Path \u2013 \u201cto Genocide.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the groundwork for genocide, the fact that it is laid far in advance, over years, even decades, through a steady process of dehumanization and demonization.<\/p>\n

For example, tomorrow, March 22nd, is the day that the Nazis opened their first concentration camp, in Dachau, just 10 miles from Munich.\u00a0 That occurred in 1933, a dozen years \u2013 a dozen years \u2013 before my stepfather would be sent to that camp after his time in Majdanek and Auschwitz.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s exhibit that I toured shows us the long path to genocide in Burma, how Rohingya, who had been an integral part of Burma\u2019s society for generations, saw their rights, saw their citizenship methodically stripped away.<\/p>\n

In 1962, when the military staged its first coup, it canceled all Rohingya-language programming on the state-run broadcasting service.<\/p>\n

In 1978, when the military used a nationwide campaign to register so-called foreigners as a pretext to terrorize Rohingya, forcing more than 200,000 to flee to Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

In 1991, when soldiers carried out killings, rapes, massive destruction of Rohingya communities as part of the military\u2019s so-called \u201cClean and Beautiful Nation,\u201d driving an additional 250,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

The path is a familiar one, mirroring in so many ways the path to the Holocaust and other genocides.<\/p>\n

We see it in the segregation of Rohingya into internally displaced persons camps in Rakhine State, the requirement that all Rohingya households register with the government.<\/p>\n

We see it in Burma\u2019s 1982 citizenship law, which effectively excluded Rohingya from citizenship and denied them full political rights, echoing the 1935 Nuremberg Laws that stripped Jews of their German citizenship.<\/p>\n

We see parallels in the dehumanizing hate speech.\u00a0 Rohingya were compared to fleas, to thorns, to an invasive species, just at Tutsis were compared to cockroaches, and Jews to rats and parasites.<\/p>\n

Understanding the contours of this path is a core part of the Holocaust Museum\u2019s mission.\u00a0 It\u2019s crucial to all of us who are committed to living up to the maxim of \u201cNever again.\u201d\u00a0 By learning to spot the signs of the worst atrocities, we\u2019re empowered to prevent them.<\/p>\n

And while today\u2019s determination of genocide and crimes against humanity is focused on Rohingya, it\u2019s also important to recognize that for decades the Burmese military has committed killings, rape, and other atrocities against members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.\u00a0 Reports of these abuses are widespread; they\u2019re well documented.\u00a0 They\u2019ve occurred in states across Burma.\u00a0 That history, and the determination we\u2019re making today, are fundamental to understanding Burma\u2019s current crisis.<\/p>\n

Many of the military leaders who oversaw the genocidal campaign against Rohingya, including the general who led it, were also involved in abuses committed against other ethnic and religious minority groups.\u00a0 They\u2019re the same military leaders who overthrew Burma\u2019s democratically elected government on February 1st, 2021 and seized power.\u00a0 Since the coup, we\u2019ve seen the Burmese military use many of the same tactics, only now the military is targeting anyone it sees as opposing or undermining its repressive rule: student protestors, pro-democracy activists, striking workers, journalists, health workers.<\/p>\n

Twenty-two-year-old Thinzar Hein was a nursing student who went to protests to provide medical care to the wounded.\u00a0 On March 28, 2021, she was tending to three injured people at a protest in Monywa when soldiers approached and shot her in the head.<\/p>\n

On December 24th, 2021, the military massacred at least 35 people, including women, children, two humanitarian aid workers in Kayah State, and then burned their bodies.\u00a0 According to a doctor who examined the bodies, almost every victim\u2019s skull was fractured.<\/p>\n

Since seizing power, the military has killed more than 1,670 men, women, and children, and unjustly detained at least 12,800 more in abysmal conditions.<\/p>\n

The similarities in these atrocities underscore a fundamental truth of this museum and of history: People who are willing to commit atrocities against one group of people can swiftly be turned against another.\u00a0 This is the warning of the well-known poem by Martin Niem\u00f6ller on the walls of this museum, which begins, as so many of us know, \u201cFirst they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

And for those who did not realize it before the coup, the brutal violence that has followed has made clear that there is no one the Burmese military won\u2019t come for.\u00a0 No one is safe from atrocities under its rule.\u00a0 And so more people in Burma now recognize that ending this crisis, restoring the path to democracy, starts with ensuring the human rights of all people in the country, including Rohingya.<\/p>\n

The similarities also matter for the purpose of truth and accountability, something the United States has been working toward since the abuses occurred and continues to do to this day.\u00a0 The passage of time does not diminish this responsibility; if anything, it only makes our quest more urgent.<\/p>\n

We strongly supported the UN Fact Finding Mission for Myanmar, and we\u2019re doing the same for its successor, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, as it collects, preserves, and analyzes evidence of the most serious international crimes in Burma.\u00a0 We\u2019re providing a wide range of support, including information, resources.\u00a0 And today, I can announce that we\u2019re also contributing nearly a million dollars in additional funding.<\/p>\n

We have also shared information with The Gambia in connection with the case it has filed against Burma under the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice for the atrocities committed against Rohingya.<\/p>\n

Even as we lay the foundation for future accountability, we\u2019re also working to stop the military\u2019s ongoing atrocities, press for the release of all those unjustly detained, support the people of Burma as they strive to put the country back on the track to democracy.<\/p>\n

Alongside allies and partners, we\u2019re imposing significant costs on the leaders who bear the greatest responsibility for atrocities.\u00a0 We\u2019ve imposed targeted sanctions on 65 individuals, including top military commanders, senior officials, their family members.\u00a0 We\u2019ve applied sanctions or export controls on 26 entities that were either implicated in human rights abuses or generate revenue for the military and its leaders.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve prevented the regime from plundering Burma\u2019s overseas reserves.<\/p>\n

In June 2021, we\u2019ve led efforts at the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution calling on member states to stop the flow of arms into Burma, which 119 countries supported and only one voted against.\u00a0 And in January, we joined 35 nations in calling for an end to the provision of all arms, materiel, and technical assistance to the Burmese military.\u00a0 All governments have a responsibility to keep the pressure on \u2013 a report released last month by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma found that China, Russia, and Serbia have all continued to supply the regime with weapons used against civilians since the coup.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re working closely with our allies and partners \u2013 in Asia, around Europe, at the G7, the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation \u2013 to deny the regime the international access and credibility it craves.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re supporting ASEAN\u2019s efforts to end the regime\u2019s violence and seek a peaceful resolution to the crisis through its Five-Point Consensus, and we appreciate the work of ASEAN\u2019s special envoy, Cambodia\u2019s Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, who arrived in Burma today for his first visit as envoy.\u00a0 The foreign minister\u2019s experience \u2013 and that of his country in enduring a genocide \u2013 gives crucial perspective on the issues at hand.<\/p>\n

The United States also continues to provide significant support to help meet the immediate humanitarian needs of Rohingya and all affected by their persecution \u2013 nearly $1.6 billion since 2017 for everything from shelter and education, specialized mental health and psychosocial support for the victims of trauma.<\/p>\n

I want to recognize the exceptional generosity of Bangladesh in hosting over 900,000 Rohingya refugees, including its recent efforts to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of Rohingya as part of its national COVID-19 vaccination campaign.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spoken today about the path to genocide.\u00a0 But let me close by saying something about the path out of genocide.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s determination is one step on that path as it tells Rohingya, and victims in particular, that the United States government recognizes the gravity of the atrocities committed against them.\u00a0 And it affirms Rohingyas\u2019 human rights and dignity, something the Burmese military has tried to destroy.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the coup, we\u2019ve seen growing solidarity with Rohingya across Burma, including an important commitment by the \u201cNational Unity Government\u201d to ensure that the human rights of Rohingya \u2013 and of all ethnic and religious minority groups \u2013 are respected.<\/p>\n

Of course, the path out of genocide also runs through justice.\u00a0 And while today that justice may feel elusive, to look around this room is to get a sense of just how determined people are to end the Burmese military\u2019s decades-long impunity.\u00a0 And there are many of us.<\/p>\n

Rohingya activists who have dedicated their lives to defending the rights of members of their community, several of whom are here today.\u00a0 And thank you for being with us.<\/p>\n

Local and international human rights organizations, which have spent years documenting atrocities against Rohingya and other ethnic and religious groups in Burma.<\/p>\n

Members of the United States Congress, who have demonstrated sustained bipartisan leadership in condemning the atrocities committed against Rohingya, providing humanitarian assistance, supporting the democratic aspirations of the people of Burma.<\/p>\n

And of course, the courageous Rohingya survivors who have been willing to come forward to share their stories, to provide accounts of what they experienced.<\/p>\n

The case files are growing.\u00a0 The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar alone has collected more than 1.5 million items of evidence and information, including witness testimonies, documents, messages, photos, videos, geospatial imagery, social media pages.<\/p>\n

Efforts are moving forward, not only at the International Court of Justice, but also through the International Criminal Court and through the domestic courts of Argentina, in a case brought under universal jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

The day will come when those responsible for these appalling acts will have to answer for them.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the path out of genocide also leads home.\u00a0 Last week, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees released a report based on interviews with thousands of Rohingya refugees across the region.\u00a0 It found that, despite all they have endured, despite decades of being told they do not belong, two out of three Rohingya refugees still want to be able to return home to Burma one day \u2013 as long as they can do it safely, with dignity, with human rights, which is not possible now.<\/p>\n

And so, with today\u2019s determination, the United States reaffirms its broader commitment to accompany Rohingya on this path out\u00a0of<\/em>\u00a0genocide \u2013 toward truth, toward accountability, toward a home that will welcome them as equal members, that will respect their human rights and dignity, alongside that of all people in Burma.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much.\u00a0 (Applause.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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